Profanity in Blurbs?

While we're not big fans of blurbs we would, however, also urge that the US/UK publisher include one very prominently on the cover of the book — from Maxim Biller's review in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung:

[The asshole Thomas Bernhard — and I say this even though I dislike speaking ill of the dead — the asshole Thomas Bernhard, it's fairly certain to say, only wrote a single good book. This book appears only now, even though he already wrote it in 1980, and it demonstrates what an asshole he was.]

This raises an interesting question: undoubtedly this would get some attention, and a large part of the appeal hinges on Biller's use of the term asshole, but would a profane blurb create the right kind of attention or the wrong kind?

I can't say that I can recall ever seeing profanity in a blurb before (not even in a positive sense, like "a fucking good read!"), although Bernhard would seem to be a good choice to break the profanity line. But I do worry . . . if a publisher does go profane, and if it does work out well, will that usher in a new era of potty-mouthed bookcovers?

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Slightly milder but similar:
“I really wanted my second book to be sharp and funny and snide and soulful and brave and heartbreaking and true. Unfortunately, that bitch Ann Leary wrote it first. I’d hate her guts except that I want to be her best friend.” -Cynthia Kaplan, author of Why I’m Like This

Check out Forrest Gander’s blurb on the back of the New Directions paperback of Bolaño’s “The Romantic Dogs” — “…With Bolaño we encounter not only ‘fist-fucking’ but ‘feet-fucking’ in a poem that also mentions Pascal, Nazi generals, Shining Path bonfires, and a teenage hooker…” It’s one of my all-time favorite blurbs.

Blurbs are often annoying prattle. Ditch them or make them memorable I say.
I liked a gig poster that under the name of the band said “Overrated” – although it turned out that Overrated was the support band.